First Priority
by Gamegirl27
Summary: One-shot. Even though Jack Skellington has many duties to fulfill as Halloween Town's Pumpkin King, he won't hesitate to drop everything to help Sally if she needs him. A oneshot about the love these two dreamers share.


**Author's Note:** All right, this is my very first attempt at a oneshot, so bear with me. For those who did not read about this in my **A Walk in the Dark** story, I was inspired to write a oneshot about Jack and Sally after I beat the playstation game **The Nightmare Before Chirstmas: Oogie's Revenge**. Why a oneshot about these two? Because they're just so dang cute together, that's why! But I would like to let you know, this story has nothing to do with my story, **A Walk in the Dark**. Just a little cuteness between two inseperable dreamers.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Tim Burton's: The Nightmare Before Christmas, but I do own the OC I made up for this story.

* * *

**First Priority**

The bright pumpkin sun slowly began to sink behind the dead horizon of Halloween Town, the twilight hours casting deep colors of yellow, orange, and red across the endless sky. Soon, the darkness of night would claim this town, the full moon being the only source of light as its citizens drifted away into the realm of nightmares and frights.

Creatures slept silently within their houses, corpses rested peacefully within their graves, and amongst the graves of Halloween Town's graveyard lay Curly Hill. This strange mound not only came to a fine point, but also curled in upon itself, and, when activated, could unfurl until it stretched out across the graveyard and made a path to the Hinterlands.

Not caring much about the mysteries that awaited them outside their town of terror, the citizens usually left Curly Hill untouched, though tonight, one rag doll sat atop it, watching the fading rays of the setting sun with a small ghost dog floating by her side.

Dr. Finklestein's own creation, Sally, sat silently in the still graveyard, sighing thoughtfully as she rested her pale blue cheek upon her knee. A daydreamer at heart, her mind was always on other things, but mostly on a certain someone she had come to love and who also loved her in return.

Jack Skellington; Halloween Town's beloved Pumpkin King, a curious dreamer as well who always longed for something new and exciting, Sally's knight in shining armor who… never seemed to be around anymore. She could hardly blame him, though. Being the leader of a holiday world brought great responsibility that needed to be taken care of 364 days a year and then all brought together on the 365th day, their designated holiday day. After that day, the process repeated for another 364 days and so on.

It was now October 27th and Sally knew that Jack was busier than ever putting together last minute plans for Halloween, yet she couldn't help but feel lonely sometimes. Never neglected, never depressed, never angry; she just missed the king she really cared about, the skeleton she had fallen in love with.

As if reading her emotions, Zero floated close to Sally, nudging her as he whined, even though his small head passed unnoticing through her arm. Turning her head ever so slightly, the rag doll cast a small smile down at the ghost dog.

"You miss him, too?" Sally cooed as she delicately traced along Zero's small body, giving the illusion as if she were petting him. After an answering nod, she couldn't help but sigh again. "I know… I miss him too."

A gentle breeze began to swirl around the graveyard, dead leaves being carried up the hill as they danced on the wind towards the two beings on top of it. Sally had brought her hands up to brush her hair away from her face when she flinched away from a sudden twinge of pain on the back of her right hand.

Turning her wrist before her eyes, she stared curiously at the dead leaves that could barely be seen from within her body sticking out of a small tear on the back of her hand.

"Strange," she whispered as she touched it lightly, the pain having subsided. Another sharp pain came soon after, though, as another leaf brushed rather roughly across her cheek. Touching that as well, she could feel a similar tear on her face now as well. What was happening?

As more leaves began to swirl around her, Sally reached out and managed to take hold of one of these leaves. Sure enough, it had the crispy, dry texture of a dead autumn leaf, yet its edges were in the form of a blade that looked as sharp as the guillotine's in the town square. It was then, as the rag doll's curiosity quickly turned to caution, that Zero began to growl.

"I sense it too, Zero," Sally whispered, not daring to make any sudden moves as she noticed the ghost dog's pumpkin nose glowing brighter in the ever darkening night. "Where is it?"

"Eh he he! Right on top of you!"

High-pitched laughter broke the silent twilight as, suddenly, hundreds of leaves flew through the air, swarming beneath Sally till a bed of them had formed and began to lift her into the air.

Sally unleashed a startled yelp as Curly Hill grew smaller beneath her. Zero could do nothing but bark as he flew after her ascent towards the ever-darkening sky.

"What is this?"

"Enjoying the ride, princess?"

The same high-pitched laughter from before filled the air as right before Sally's frightened eyes, new razor leaves swarmed together until the outline of what looked like a skinny man appeared. He seemed nearly as tall as Jack, no fingers or toes could be visibly seen from his hands and feet, and all that defined his face were two hollow slits for eyes and two leaves that pursed together to form an amused smile.

"Who… What…"

"Zip it," the leaf creature zoomed forward, covering Sally's small mouth with his leaf hand, "No more talking, I don't want to hear your voice anymore." As he talked, the rag doll noticed a strange cracking that could be heard in his falsetto voice, like the sound of crunching dead leaves. "I will introduce myself to you so you don't start asking a bunch of stupid, random questions." Another crackle, to signify that he was clearing his throat. "My name is…"

Zero's sudden barking took the leaf creature by surprise as the small ghost dog began to fly around his head.

"Silence, you mangy mutt!" the creature swatted at Zero, though his razor sharp blades passed harmlessly through the dog's white body. "My name is…"

More barking as Zero hovered right in front of the leaf creature's face.

"Go away, you pesky apparition! Your dog talk is just too distracting!"

Noticing his leafed hand wasn't clamped as tightly over her mouth at the moment, Sally took the chance to talk to her small companion. "Zero, go get Jack!"

"Hey, I told you… no more talking," the leaf creature pressed his hand firmly down upon her mouth again, but those four words were all Sally needed to say. Not wanting to leave the rage doll, but having heard what she said, Zero reluctantly obeyed and flew as quickly as he could towards Halloween Town.

"Finally, no more disruptive chitter chatter," the falsetto creature harrumphed as he cleared his throat again. "Now, as I was saying, my name is Caprifig. Not Capri, not Fig, Caprifig. I can't stand nicknames. Why have you never seen me before? Well, that's only because I can only come back when there is a surplus of the leaves that make up my body. Why am I here? Because even though I have many, many leaves, eventually, they begin to crack and just cripple away, so I'm in search of new leaves. Why do I have you? Because I noticed that you're stuffed full of them. So what am I going to do to you? I'm going to tear you apart and take your leaves. See? Now didn't we get through that so much quicker than if you were asking the questions?"

"You still took long enough to get through the details, though."

Caprifig and Sally both glanced down at the ground far below as a strong voice carried up towards them. A tall, thin skeleton stood below wearing a black, pin-striped suit. A bat-like tie fanned its wings out at the base of his neck, its dark color standing out against his bone white shirt. Zero hovered by his side, glaring up at the leaf creature as the skeleton placed his hands on his hips, not looking too happy himself.

_He came… _Sally smiled to herself as she felt a little bit safer knowing he was here.

"So," Caprifig snarled at the ghost dog, not wanting the little yapper to come back, especially with company, "I take it you're Jack, then?"

"Hm, clearly you've heard of me."

"Just your name, from this annoying princess right here." The leaf creature sneered as he traced the hand that had been covering Sally's mouth down and made another tear under her chin, causing the rag doll to flinch from the unexpected pain.

"Well, that's the only thing you'll ever hear about me, because when I'm through with you," Jack's eye sockets narrowed as his fists curled into tight fists, "you're going to regret the day you ever heard it."

"Tough talk for such a scrawny skeleton."

"It is unwise for you to underestimate me, but if you release Sally now, you won't have to deal with me."

"And why are you so concerned for this rag doll's safety?"

"Because. She's. Mine."

Sally's wide eyes darted back and forth between her captor and her knight, who seemed to be having what looked more like a stare down than an actual fight. After a few moments of silence, Caprifig was the first to break it.

"All right. Here you go." Sally could feel the leaves shifting beneath her as the ground slowly came up to meet her.

_That's it?_ She thought as the leaves disappeared beneath her and her feet touched the dead grass surrounding the graveyard. _He's just going to let me go?_

"Sally." A familiar voice interrupted her thoughts as she looked up and saw Jack not walking, but running to where she now stood.

"Jack," she smiled.

Reaching out his long arm, Jack was ready to take Sally's delicate hand within his when, suddenly, the leaves that had serves as her hovering bed now enveloped her in what appeared to be a leaf orb.

"Jack!" She reached out her hand, but her form soon disappeared from sight as the orb engulfed her in a wave of fast moving leaves.

"Sally! Ah!" Jack withdrew his arm as one of the orbiting leaves sliced across his wrist; knicking his bone, yet slicing through his sleeve with ease.

"Eh he he!" Caprifig descended from the sky until he hovered just above the rotating leaf orb. "You honestly believed I would give her back? Ha! Go find another doll to play with because this one…"

Sally's screaming could be heard from within the orb as the bladed leaves cut at her body from every angle.

"… is mine."

"Sally!"

Caprifig pointed a leafed hand at the Pumpkin King, cuing more razor sharp leaves to begin engulfing the skeleton.

Not giving up without a fight, Jack pushed through the pain and swatted at the leaves as he advanced forward. He had one thought on his skull and one thought only: he HAD to get to Sally.

"My, gosh, boy, stop trying so hard. Just give it a couple more minutes and, I promise, the pain will go away."

"I won't… let you do this… to her."

"How touching. Ah!"

The leaves surrounding Jack suddenly fell to the ground, as harmless as any ordinary leaves. Gazing around to see what had frightened Caprifig, he smiled as he soon found out why. Zero was flying through the graveyard as fast as he could towards him with one of the town's lanterns dangling from his mouth.

_Fire…_

"Fire?"  
Knowing the leaf creature could run at any moment, Jack knew he had to work fast. Sprinting towards Zero, he took the lantern from the ghost dog, smashed it on one of the graveyard's surrounding pumpkins till it caught on fire, then hurled the ball of fire up towards Caprifig.

"No! NO!"

Before Caprifig could disappear from sight, the flaming pumpkin passed through him, his leaf body catching on fire and quickly burning him until there was nothing but ash left. The orb he had created halted in its orbit as the leaves all came crashing down into one huge pile.

"Sally!" Jack rushed over to the pile of leaves, knelt down to the ground, and began to dig, not having to search long as he found Sally's face amongst the leaves, her eyes closed as her body lay motionless.

"Please, Sally," Jack cried as he gently lifted her body and cradled her in his arms. Her limbs were all still intact, but multiple rips covered her body with her dead leaf stuffing sticking out from each one, "wake up."

As if on cue, Sally's eyes shot open, immediately searching for Caprifig. "Jack… where is…"

"Gone," Jack sighed with relief as a smile crossed his face. He looked away from Sally until he met the black eyes of his faithful, ghost companion. "Good boy, Zero. Good boy."

Sally was relieved to hear that bit of good news, but her worry soon returned as soon as she saw the multiple rips in Jack's suit and the knicks in his bones. "Oh, Jack, I'm so sorry."

Jack shook his head as he lifted her off the ground and carried her to the base of Curly Hill. "Don't be. I haven't seen a creature that hostile since Oogie Boogie. You wouldn't have thought about it, none of us would, but I thought we talked about coming out here by yourself, especially at night."

"I was watching the sun set with Zero," Sally defended as Jack sat down within the shadow of Curly Hill, leaning his back against the mound as he set her down in his lap.

"And it was a good thing he was with you, too, or I would've never known where you were. Listen, I know you can take care of yourself, but when it comes to these sort of things, I'd prefer it if I was with you. I'd feel a lot better knowing that you were safe with me."

"I know that, Jack. I just… I had nothing else to do."

A pang of guilt struck Jack as he realized Sally wouldn't even make eye contact with him. "I'm sorry I've been so busy, Sally."

"No, no, please, don't apologize…"

"No, you deserve better than this."

"But, your duties. Those are your first priority."

"Oh, Sally, you still don't understand. Your safety is my first priority."

Sally froze at this statement as her cheeks began to heat up like an oven. She slowly turned until her eyes met Jack's empty eye sockets.

"Sure, my duties as Pumpkin King are important, but I would drop everything I was doing if I knew you needed me. There's no reason I can't make my responsibilities and my relationship with you number one on my list."

"J-Jack…"

Leaning forward, Jack planted a delicate kiss on her cheek, hoping not to disturb the rips and tears she had there as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "I love you, and from now on, I promise that I'll be there for you more, no matter what duties I may have."

Feeling safe within his embrace, Sally leaned back until her head rested on Jack's ribcage. "You already have, Jack," she smiled as sleep began to claim the two, "more than you know."


End file.
